(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Starting Pitchers Opening Series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
Thursday-evening, July 23, will be Opening Night in the Dutch baseball big league with the season opening later than ever before.
On July 23, 25-26, the first 3-game series will be played of a schedule that has been cut in half.
Initially, the regular season was to open on Thursday, April 23.
However, in early March, due to the first bigger measures taken against the spread of the coronavirus, the Final Olympic Baseball Qualier in Taiwan was moved from early April to June.
With that, the schedule of the Dutch big league had to be adjusted.
One 3-game series was moved up front and with that, the season was to start on Thursday, April 16.
Things changed quickly from halfway March on.
The entire exhition season was cancelled and the start of the new season was postponed frequently.
Most activities and (sports)-events worldwide were either cancelled or postponed.
Amongst them also the 30th Baseball Week Haarlem, which was scheduled to begin on June 26.
...Veteran Rob Cordemans needs one victory...
...to become the first pitcher with 200 wins...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
On June 24, the Governement announced an ease on most measures, effective July 1.
The next day, the KNBSB announced that Opening Night was scheduled for Thursday.
The second highest league ('Overgangsklasse') will open on Friday.
Lower divisions already opened in the past three weeks.
On Thursday, the teams will play their first game of a 21-game schedule.
The original schedule was to consist of 42 games with each team playing two 3-game series against the other seven teams in the league.
This season, only one 3-game series will be played.
After completion of the regular season, a Play-Off will be played to decide which teams will face each other in the Holland Series.
Of course, Grand Slam * Stats & News will publish the probable starting pitchers again for each 3-game series.
Starting on Thursday-evening, last years finalists will meet in the Opening Series.
L&D Amsterdam Pirates opens in Rotterdam against Curaçao Neptunus.
The two games in the weekend will both be played in Amsterdam.
Last year, Neptunus won the first three games of the best-of-seven Holland Series, but hereafter, Pirates wrote history and became the first team ever to win the next four games to capture the Championship-title.
Both teams qualified to participate (again) in the European Champions Cup-tournament, which was to be organized early June in Ostrava (Czech Republic), but of course also was cancelled.
It already has been decided that Amsterdam Pirates and Neptunus will participate now in next years tournament whatever the ranking of this season.
On Thursday-evening, veteran righthander Rob Cordemans will start for the reigning champion.
And he can write another piece of history then.
When Pirates wins that game and Cordemans is the winning pitcher, it will be his 200th win in his long and impressive career.
With that, he will become the first pitcher in history to reach that mark.
DSS/Kinheim will make its debut on Thursday playing at home against Hoofddorp Pioniers.
DSS/Kinheim was created after a working agreement between DSS and Kinheim, who are neighbors at the Pim Mulier Sports Complex in Haarlem.
Kinheim last played in the big league in 2016, while DSS played in the highest league since 2015.
Last year, Kinheim won the title in the 'Overgangsklasse', while DSS lost the Play Downs Final Series.
With that, the two teams faced each other in the best-of-five Promotion/Relegation Series with the winner playing in the big league this season.
DSS won the Series 3-2 to extend its stay in the highest division.
After the season, the two clubs started talks to come to a working agreement.
That resulted in the new DSS/Kinheim format with the main squad playing in the big league (the spot of DSS) and the second team playing in the 'Overgangsklasse' (the spot of Kinheim).
Instead of having the combined name DSS/Kinheim on their uniform, the team instead plays with the city-name 'Haarlem' on its uniforms.
Also, the logo on the caps is '023', which is the area code of Haarlem.
Silicion Storks opens at home on Thursday-evening against Twins Oosterhout, but is doing that at the site of Amsterdam Pirates in Amsterdam.
As there is no light-installation at the site of Storks in The Hague, the team plays its home-games in the evening at the site of Neptunus in Rotterdam.
However, Neptunus is also playing at home on Thursday.
Last week, it was announced that the game was to be played at the site of UVV in Vleuten, but now it has been confirmed that the game will be played in Amsterdam.
On Sunday, Storks plays at home at its site in The Hague.
Saturday's game will be played in Oosterhout.
HCAW, which finished in third place in the regular season last year, opens at home against Quick Amersfoort.
The teams also will play in Bussum on Sunday.
Saturday's game will be played in Amersfoort.
(July 22)
| Roster | L&D AMSTERDAM PIRATES | vs. |
CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Pirates | G | # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 38 | RHP Rob Cordemans (0-0) | 1 | 35 | LHP Diegomar Markwell (0-0) | Th. July 23, 7:30 PM, Rotterdam (1) |
| 50 | LHP Jim Ploeger (0-0) | 2 | 38 | RHP Orlando Yntema (0-0) | Sa. July 25, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (2) |
| 45 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (0-0) | 3 | 27 | RHP Kaj Timmermans (0-0) | Su. July 26, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (2) |
| (1) = Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam; (2) = Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam |
| Roster | HCAW | vs. |
QUICK AMERSFOORT | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers HCAW | G | # | Starting Pitchers Quick |
| Date, Time & Site |
| | not announced yet | 1 | 18 | LHP Brian van Laar (0-0) | Th. July 23, 7:30 PM, Bussum (3) |
| | not announced yet | 2 | 26 | RHP Wendell Floranus (0-0) | Sa. July 25, 2:00 PM, Amersfoort (4) |
| | not announced yet | 3 | | to be decided | Su. July 26, 2:30 PM, Bussum (3) |
| (3) = Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark Zanderijweg, Bussum; (4) = XL Lease Park 'Dorrestein', Amersfoort |
| Roster | DSS/KINHEIM | vs. |
HOOFDDORP PIONIERS | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers DSS/Kinheim | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pioniers |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 23 | RHP Jelle Bing (0-0) | 1 | 47 | LHP Chris Pfau (0-0) | Th. July 23, 7:30 PM, Haarlem (5) |
| 12 | RHP Glenn Wassink (0-0) | 2 | 39 | RHP Lars Huijer (0-0) | Sa. July 25, 1:00 PM, Hoofddorp (6) |
| 31 | RHP Steven van Groningen (0-0) | 3 | 36 | RHP Scott Prins (0-0) | Su. July 26, 2:00 PM, Haarlem (5) |
| (5) = Pim Mulier Stadion, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem; (6) = ETO Ballpark, Sportpark Hoofddorp Pioniers, Park21, Hoofddorp |
| Roster | SILICON STORKS | vs. |
TWINS OOSTERHOUT | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Storks | G | # | Starting Pitchers Twins |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 25 | RHP Twan Naessens (0-0) | 1 | 28 | RHP Sora Sakashita (0-0) | Th. July 23, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (7)(*) |
| | to be decided | 2 | 8 | RHP Koen Postelmans (0-0) | Sa. July 25, 2:00 PM, Oosterhout (8) |
| | to be decided | 3 | | to be decided | Su. July 26, 2:30 PM, The Hague (9) |
| (7) = Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam; (8) = Sportpark 'De Slotbosse Toren', Oosterhout; (9) = Sportpark 'Kijkduin', The Hague |
| (*) - Thursday's home-game of Storks will be played at the site of Amsterdam Pirates in Amsterdam |
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